Dead Runners society race report
Regents Park 10km series, London - sunday
3rd December 2000.
A trip to the big city for a race in
one of London’s great parks.
Evenin all
Tony back in Oxford again. Yesterday the
"beautiful Shelley" and I headed south from Cambridge to the big city to run a
10km race. We travelled with Claudia, an Italian lady from Shelley's new running
club who is visiting my old chemistry department at Cambridge University for a
year. Down the M11 motorway in the dark and then on the tube train into the
centre of London. We followed a runner from the tube station to Regent's Park
and there was the race venue. The race was to be run in one of London's great
parks, the start/finish is next to London zoo.
We joined the queue of runners to get our
race numbers and paid our race entry fees. A bit of jogging to warm up and then
time to line up for the race. Conditions were pretty good, cold and sunny with
only a gentle breeze at the start. Someone said go and off we went.
An uphill start and then 3 laps of the park
before heading back down the hill to the finish, I didn't set off too fast, I
hadn't eased off for this race. It took a minute to pass Shelley and Claudia, by
1/2 mile I was moving along at a decent speed and gradually working my way
through, 1 mile in 6.45. We ran alongside a lake for a while before heading
uphill towards the finish area, 2 miles in 13.24/6.39, still moving well. At the
top of the hill I turned right and downhill again to start lap 2, by now I was
feeling a little tired and I could feel a stitch coming on so I didn't try to
push too hard. A young man dressed in black came zooming past down the hill, I
was still passing the odd runner by now but we were getting a bit spread out. 3
miles in 20.24/6.50, past the lake and up the hill again, 4 miles in 27.11/6.57,
I passed the young man in black who was walking!
1 lap to go, turn right at the top and down
hill again, I was starting to lap the stragglers at the back of the pack on this
lap, pushed on a little harder as this was the last lap. I ran a bit harder at
the end of the downhill to pass a man with a ponytail just before a bend, I
could hear footsteps behind me after that but this increase in effort took me
closer to a pack ahead and I passed a few more runners. 5 miles in 34.00/6.49,
past the lake and up that hill for the last time. I was very tired by now, I passed a
couple more up the hill but I could hear footsteps behind me and and at the top
of the hill ponytail came zooming past. Left turn, 6 miles in 40.52/6.52 and its
all downhill to the finish. For some strange reason the start/finish line seemed
to have moved a lot further away on the way down to the finish than it seemed at
the start! I tried to stride out a bit but it was a struggle to the end, I
didn't gain or lose any more places after 6 miles.
Over the line in 42.16, through the finishers
funnel where our numbers were recorded and I shook hands with ponytail and then
waited for the ladies to finish. Claudia finished in 45.08, her first race in
England, Shelley finished 2m30s later in 47.38, just 10s slower than her pb
which she set 3.5 years ago :-( Fairly pleased with my run, 3s faster than the
last 10km I did in Cambridge, not bad for a "training run" although I was only
about 10s faster than I was at 10km in the Preston 10 mile race last month. On
with the rainsuit and we did 5 minutes jogging to recover. A nice race in a nice
place to run.
Afterwards as we had a cup of tea in one of
the park cafes we were sat next to the race organisers who were working out the
results. I was 49th, Claudia was 79th and Shelley was 99th, 217 finished.
ORN I did the 6 x 1/2 mile in 4 minutes
session today with some of my Oxford running buddies. There is a nominal
half-mile hilly loop around Headington Hill park, the session is to do the lap
and have your recovery in 4 minutes before you start the next one. The faster
you go the more recovery you get. I was still a bit sore from yesterday but I
did OK, reps were 3.45, 3.40, 3.37, 3.39, 3.41 and 3.32. I have done this
session faster but not the day after a race.
bye tony....
Dr Tony Bell Tony@shells.demon.co.uk tony.bell@chemistry.oxford.ac.uk
Weekends - Milton, Cambridgeshire. Midweek, Dept of Inorganic Chemistry, Oxford
University. http://www.shells.demon.co.uk/tonyweb.html
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